


I'll Follow You Anywhere

by author_abz



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 12:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22716958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author_abz/pseuds/author_abz
Summary: Nathan Mackinnon is a Gryffindor, and Tyson Barrie is a Hufflepuff. They're still best friends.
Relationships: J. T. Compher/Tyson Jost, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Samuel Girard/Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie/Nathan MacKinnon
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59
Collections: 2 Hots: #boysarehot Avs Valentines 2020 fic challenge





	I'll Follow You Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [josthockeythings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/josthockeythings/pseuds/josthockeythings) in the [2hots](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2hots) collection. 

> **Prompt:**  
Hogwarts AU!!!!! Literally any pairing any plot, just the Avs in hogwarts!!!!
> 
> Extremely typical of me to help organize a "short fic" challenge, only to take a prompt that requires a bunch of world-building and wants to have every person in the hockey world in it, and wants to be its own series. That's why my word count is triple what it should be - I've had this vague idea in my head for ages, so thanks to the challenge for making me write it and giving me a deadline! 
> 
> Many thanks to my two absolutely phenomenal betas, aj and ashley, I love you both very much and you're INCREDIBLY patient and kind for beta-ing as I wrote and late at night when I should have been done already. Speaking of - any remaining mistakes are mine and due to sleep deprivation. Oops.
> 
> Story note: In this Hogwarts universe being in a House/common room that is not your own is considered out-of-bounds.

_October 20, Sixth Year_

“I want you all to know that you are safe here, and while we deal with the creatures, the professors and - Mr. Barrie! What _are_ you doing?” Professor McGonagall shouts abruptly when she sees him.

Tyson’s startled and looks around him self-consciously. The idea of semi-dangerous creatures wandering the halls had made him briefly forget where he was. “Um…” he says, and he can see EJ and Gabe both muffling their laughter behind their hands a cluster of armchairs away. He’s standing next to a table, and his book bag _is_ on it, so he invents, “Homework. I was working on -”

“Mr. Barrie, this is the Gryffindor Common Room, not the library. Twenty points from Hufflepuff. And a detention.” McGonagall turns back to the room at large and continues. “Prefects, you will assist, please come with me. Mr. Barrie, you too.”

\---

_October 20, Sixth Year_

“We are asking the prefects and head boy and girl to assist us in our recapturing efforts,” Professor Sprout says calmly. “Mr. Mackinnon, you are a prefect, so I will need your assistance, but why are you here?”

Nate jumps slightly; he hadn’t even realized Professor Sprout saw him, he was too busy thinking of a plan to round up the creatures who’d escaped. He looks down, trying to think of an excuse, why he might be here, perched on the back of the yellow couch. Matty Calvert is standing near him, and he can see his suppressed smirk, but he lightly nudges the sweater resting on the couch next to Nate, eyes resolutely on Professor Sprout. 

“I was just getting my sweater,” he says, picking it up. The remarkable thing is that it _is_ his sweater, and he’s not sure why it’s here - he doesn’t remember the last time he’s worn it. 

“Twenty points from Gryffindor, and a detention.” Professor Sprout responds, her mouth fairly thin. “And if you and the other prefects would follow me, please.” 

\---

_September 2, First Year_

Nate’s been so excited to start at Hogwarts, his wand keeps emitting sparks. After his parents had taken him to Diagon Alley, any time he’d held his brand new wand he’d start shooting sparks, and instead of allowing him to practice spells like he wanted to, they made him put the wand away. Now, on his first day, he’s allowed to keep his wand in his hand, and the sparks he shoots off are larger than the ones he made at home, and they keep changing colors. Gold and crimson and blue and orange and even silver, once. 

It’s almost a relief to find his way outside to the greenhouses for his first herbology lesson - he knows he probably won’t need his wand out here. He’s already lost Gryffindor fifteen points with his errant sparks. Making his way across the lawn he gets his first good look at the quidditch stadium, and he gets even more excited - he’s not going to be on Sid’s or Brad’s team since they’re all in different houses, but he’ll get to play against them there, and he can really prove he’s as good as they are. Nate ends up so distracted looking over towards the stadium he walks into a group of Hufflepuffs also making their way down towards the greenhouses. 

“Oh, sorry! Sorry.” 

The girls in the group look at him, startled, and keep walking hurriedly to the greenhouses, but the two boys he ran into smile at him, looking over towards the stadium too.

“Do you play?” The dark haired boy asks him, smiling.

“Yeah, I’m a chaser,” Nate says, then blushes a little. “I mean, I’m Nate.”

“I’m Colin,” the blonde boy says, leaning over to shake Nate’s hand. “Tyson thinks he’s going to get on the team as a first year,” Colin says, rolling his eyes at the dark haired boy, Tyson.

“I _am_,” Tyson says, grinning impishly over at Nate, and they all fall in step together towards the greenhouses. “I’m a beater,” he says, like it’s a secret.

“I’m gonna make the team this year, too,” Nate says, sure of it. “I mean, my friend Sid did -” 

“You know Sidney Crosby?” Tyson asks him, surprised.

“Yeah,” Nate answers, shrugging at Colin and Tyson’s faces. “I grew up just down the way from him.”

Nate wants to ask Colin and Tyson about how try-outs work, if they know, but he doesn’t get the opportunity. Professor Sprout’s opening the greenhouse door and they all make their way inside. He’s not paying too much attention to where he sits down, too busy looking around at all the different plants, but he ends up next to Tyson, and they’re sitting across from Colin, and JT, another first-year Gryffindor boy.

His other Gryffindor classmates are all grouped together at a table, and the other Hufflepuffs are, too - Nate’s glad JT chose this table, too, so they can be the Gryffindors at the ‘different houses can be friends’ table together. Professor Sprout starts them off almost immediately with work, but it’s simple weeding to familiarize themselves with the plants in the greenhouse. It also allows them ample opportunity to chat, so even as Tyson makes a joke about feeling like he’s being punished with chores, Nate laughs and asks him if that happened a lot, and they end up chatting about home for the rest of the lesson.

By the time Professor Sprout tells them all to wash up, Nate feels like he’s made his first real friend at school. It’s not until he’s walking to his next lesson that he realizes he meant to ask Tyson what he knew about quidditch try-outs. When he walks in to find a seat in his last class of the day, he’s frustrated, because JT and Jamie, another of his Gryffindor classmates, have already told him to shut up about try-outs twice today, and - 

“Hey, Nate!” Tyson’s smiling face greets him in the back of the Charms classroom, beckoning him over to the open seat next to him.

\---

_May 30, First Year_

End of the year exams are taking a lot out of Nate, even though he’s been doing all right, and he’s a first year - it’s not like he’s taking his O.W.L.s or anything. All of his books are laid out in front of him, taking up a whole table at the library he and his friends are sitting at, and his brain feels like a sponge, both overfull and wrung out completely. Colin’s still dutifully reading through his own notes, and Jamie (“Call him ‘Chubbs,’ Nate,” Tyson teases sometimes, while his own hometown friend goes red.) is looking at their Arithmancy book, but his eyes are glazed over. Burky’s sleeping with his head thrown back, and JT and Grubi both look ready to fall asleep on top of their own books.

He meets Tyson’s eyes across the table; Tyson had been looking around the library instead of studying, and he looks annoyed. “Ask me something,” Nate says. “Anything.”

Tyson looks down at the notes in his lap wearily, then shakes his head, looking at Nate. “Wanna go get a snack?”

Nate laughs, then stops before he can feel too guilty in the library. “What?”

“We need a snack study break, come on.” He sees Nate pick up his bookbag and stops him, “We’ll come back - we have to wake them up anyway,” he says, indicating their friends around the table. Grubi actually makes a rude gesture at him, which makes Tyson smile.

“Hey,” Jamie seems to snap back to himself. “Get me something.”

Tyson nods and leads Nate out of the library and through the castle, to where, he doesn’t know. “Do you have some snacks in your dorm?” he asks as they practically run down a stairway, being as loud as possible after the stiffness of the library.

“I probably do,” Tyson says, “but I was gonna get something from the kitchens.” He turns around to walk backwards in front of Nate and laughs at his shocked face.

\---

_October 20, Sixth Year_

Professor McGonagall leads Tyson and the Gryffindor prefects down into the castle, instructing them all to keep their wands out. He can see Gabe in front of him take a steadying breath, walking next to Professor McGonagall - _of course_, Tyson thinks, _Head Boy Landeskog to the rescue_. 

“Professor,” Gabe asks, “do we know where the creatures are, or what they are?”

“Yes, but there’s no need to worry the whole house over some chickens and nifflers, and, well, there are a few other creatures, too.” She sounds more tired and annoyed than steeling herself for a dangerous fight, which helps Tyson calm down, confident he can handle whatever’s loose, even if he’s _not _a prefect. 

They’re meeting the other houses in the Great Hall, so Tyson expects to pass a bunch of creatures on his way there, but it’s like any other Sunday evening at Hogwarts, just the hallways are a little emptier than usual. Professor McGonagall leads the group of Gryffindors into the hall directly behind the group of Ravenclaws, and they’re the last ones there, all of the professors standing in a group with Mel, the head girl, and all the other prefects, _including Nate_.

Matty Calvert is standing next to Nate, and he’s smirking at Tyson as he walks in. He tries to somehow wordlessly communicate with Tyson, but the whole thing makes Tyson feel more awkward than he did standing alone in the Gryffindor common room, and he tries to only look at the floor. _Nate was with the Hufflepuffs_, Tyson thinks, and he tries not to read into it. Maybe he just walked over to talk to Matt and Devlin, but there’s still a swelling in Tyson’s chest when he thinks that maybe Nate was in the common room. 

He pushes the feeling down the best he can while Hagrid takes the lead and starts to explain himself. They were trying out a new, magical containment system for a variety of creatures, and it failed. Hagrid doesn’t blame whoever cast the containment charms, but Tyson notices professors Flitwick and McGonagall looking a little ashamed, and he has to keep himself from laughing.

There are a lot more creatures loose than Tyson thought originally. It’s not just a few nifflers tearing up anything shiny, it’s also fire-breathing chickens scared and trying to burn the place down, and a handful of kneazles trying to outsmart their way into cozy corners, pixies on the loose who knows where, three fwoopers, and crups. “But we’ve got most of them back in their crates, I think we’re only missing three, so if you see one, they should come right along with ya,” Hagrid says, reassuringly.

“The fwoopers, however, do not currently have silencing charms on them, so be incredibly cautious,” McGonagall says grimly. 

“There might be some students still in common areas, so we’d like a few of you to go and collect them, escorting them back to their common rooms.” Professor Sprout looks out over the group, “Mr. Girard, Mr. Murray, Mr. Makar, if you would do that as quickly as possible, then report back here.”

Hagrid and Professor McGonagall make quick work sorting the rest of them into groups. Tyson ends up with Gabe and Pierre-Edouard and two of the girl Ravenclaw prefects he doesn’t know, and he sees that Nate is paired with Matty and Seguin and Professor Vector. They’re learning where they think most of the creatures are in the castle and which group is working on which animals when Hagrid notices Tyson and pulls him out of his group.

“Tyson!” He says, a hand on his shoulder, then he pulls someone else out of their group from behind him, “If you’re here, you and Nate can be your own group,” he says, moving them to stand next to each other. “Niffler duty.” 

Some of the professors are probably giving Hagrid concerned looks, but Tyson and Nate _are_ top students in Care of Magical Creatures, and they absolutely crushed their unit on nifflers. He can’t really fault Hagrid, and none of the professors seriously object, so they must all know it, too. It doesn’t make it any less awkward, though - he’s still heading out to catch magical creatures in the castle with a best friend he hasn’t talked to for a week. 

Everyone files out of the Great Hall and both Belley and Matty make faces at him and Nate as they file past them, and even though Nate hasn’t looked at him yet, his heart beats faster. _He was in my common room_, he thinks, wildly. _I mean, he knows how to get in._

Nate squares his shoulders and finally turns to Tyson, “Ready?”

Tyson takes his wand out. “Ready.”

\---

_May 30, First Year_

Nate knows that the Hufflepuff Den is closer to the Great Hall than the Gryffindor Tower is, and it makes sense that the kitchens would be close to the Great Hall, but he has no idea where either of those places are. Tyson obviously knows where the Hufflepuff common room is, but apparently that means he also knows where the kitchens are, because he’s walking completely carefree and confidently down the stairs and hallways until Nate has no idea where they are. Tyson apparently does, though, running his fingers along the paintings of food along the walls.

They go all the way until the end of the hallway where a bunch of barrels are stacked, and Tyson maneuvers around them.

“Is this where the kitchens are?” Nate asks, looking interestedly at the barrels.

“No, the kitchens are downstairs, but I wanted to get something from my room.” He knocks a pattern into the wood and one of the barrels disappears; he hunches down to crawl through it.

“Oh,” Nate looks around awkwardly, “I’ll wait here.”

Tyson looks back, confused. “Don’t be stupid, c’mon,” he gestures him over, but when Nate doesn’t move he comes back over to him and drags him forward into the barrels. 

Nate doesn’t fall, but it’s a close thing as he follows Tyson through what feels like a tunnel into the Hufflepuff common room. He stands up, looking around the bright, airy room, it seems larger than the Gryffindor common room, and he’s not sure why, maybe just that it isn’t circular. Like his common room is decked out in crimsons and golds, he sees a lot of yellow around the room, with some dark accents. 

He’s standing in the entrance, taking in the understated, comfortable grandeur of the Hufflepuff common room, and he wants to take it all in, but Tyson takes him by the arm, mumbling, “C’mon, it’ll be really obvious if you stand here staring.”

Nate follows him, “I wasn’t _staring_.” He says, even though he and Tyson both know he was. 

Instead of a spiral staircase, Nate follows Tyson down a hallway and up some normal stairs until they reach a door labeled “First Years.” There’s only a split second before Tyson beelines for his own area in the dorm, and Nate kind of wishes he had waited and made Nate guess, because he would have gotten it right. It’s not more or less messy than the other boys’ beds and wardrobes and trunks, but the candy wrappers on the bedside table, the notes he borrowed from Nate on his bed next to a quidditch magazine, and something in the way that his clothes are sticking out of his truck and his broom is propped up by the wardrobe all say ‘Tyson’ to Nate.

Tyson pulls out a sweater from his trunk and when he pulls it on, it jogs Nate’s memory. “Wait, you were wearing a sweater earlier.”

Tyson just nods in response. “Yeah, and Grubi’s sleeping on it.”

“Well JT might need one to sleep on too, so you should grab an extra,” Nate says, leaning against the four poster.

“Good idea, you wear one for JT,” Tyson says, pulling another, baggier sweater out of his trunk and tossing it at Nate. He takes it, and it’s uglier than the one Tyson put on, but it is soft, and roughly Nate’s size, so he puts it on anyway. “C’mon,” Tyson says, pulling him out of the dorm again, “lets get some food before somebody sees you.”

“Cool, I can get caught in the kitchens,” Nate tries to joke, but before he knows it he’s meeting a Hogwarts house elf for the first time. He hardly has time to marvel at how well Tyson already seems to know them (Tyson tells Nate later that he has a house elf at home and the two of them are “close”) before they each have arms full of snacks for their study groups upstairs.

It isn’t until Nate’s finally heading to bed, explaining to JT, Jamie, and Burky how they snuck all the food past Madam Pince that Nate realizes he’s still wearing Tyson’s sweater.

\---

_October 20, Sixth Year_

Nate tries really hard not to laugh at Tyson, watching him crawl along the floor trying to coax a kneazle out from under a ledge. Hagrid put them both on niffler duty, and they haven’t found a single one. Still, that didn’t stop them from rounding up two - soon to be three - kneazles, two crups, two fwoopers, and a lone fire-breathing chicken. Tyson’s better at dealing with the kneazles than Nate is, which is a good excuse for him to hang back. In reality, he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on the little hand-pulled wagon they conjured to carry the multiple animals they’d wrangled. Mostly, though, he’s watching Tyson plead and wheedle with the kneazle on his hands and knees, dust and spiderwebs getting into his perfect hair. (Tyson doesn’t think his hair is perfect, but Nate… well, Nate tries really hard not to mention it out loud.)

“Why don’t you just stun and summon them?” Nate says after Tyson makes his fifth exasperated sigh.

“Because I’m not about to piss her off and scare her further down in there.” He straightens up for a second to glance back at Nate. “I swear there’s a tunnel opening here, and I’m not about to have her disappear.”

He lies back down on the floor, his attention back on the kneazle. Watching him, Nate’s stomach does a weird flop. They’re really good at this - he doesn’t need one of the crups circling around his legs to know that - and it had been so easy to work together with Tyson again. Trusting Hagrid and the other professors to know where the creatures were, they went in the direction they indicated, planning on a few different spells to calm down and gather the nifflers, but instead they came across a fwooper, then a crup, then a kneazle. 

Nate has a fwooper perched on his shoulder that seems to like him, but at a certain point they ran out of hands and needed their wand arms, so Tyson, in a burst of either irritation or inspiration, conjured up a cozy wagon for the kneazle he was carrying. After they found another crup, Nate expanded the wagon, and then the second fwooper wanted a better perch, and Tyson made sure the now giant wagon moved itself. 

There are weird noises coming from the hole in the wall, and Nate wants so badly for Tyson to be making the sound of a kneazle so he can laugh at him and things can go back to normal. Nate does laugh at him when he emerges, but that’s because the kneazle is sitting smugly on top of Tyson’s head, and he says, “C’mon, my head isn’t big enough for this, I’m not _Gabe_.”

Once they’re done laughing and situate all of their charges snugly together and recast a spell or two, they decide to head down to the Great Hall. Letting his mind go back to the Great Hall, Nate’s stomach flips again, remembering that Tyson came down with McGonagall and Gabe and Sammy, which means he came from his common room. He doesn’t get to dwell too long on whether Tyson was in his common room for the same reason Nate was in his, because they come across the third fwooper and the third crup.

Luckily when they pass the whole flock of pixies, they can walk quickly past to avoid getting the kneazles riled up, because Cale is single-handedly getting them back in their cage. Nate starts to say, “Jeez, just when you think Cale,” when he sees Tyson’s face, and quickly finishes, “is completely worthless, he does something right.”

Tyson frowns at him, but keeps his voice calm for the scared crup in his arms, “Nice save.” 

Hagrid is in the entrance hall when they get downstairs, and in the middle of congratulating and thanking them for their excellent work, he ushers them outside to where new crates have been set up. “Not that you need ‘em, with this fancy carrier you whipped up,” he says, then goes on to explain that the people who _had_ found the nifflers are not as good at handling them as Nate and Tyson are, and it’s pandemonium in the Great Hall now. 

They explain what else they saw and Hagrid seems satisfied. If Cale's got the pixies covered, he knows the professors have the rest of the fire-breathing chickens under control, and he can handle the nifflers, so they’re welcome to head back to bed if they want. 

It’s not that late, and Nate looks hopefully over at Tyson, thinking maybe they can hang out and stop being mad at each other. Tyson’s face is wholly focused on the crup and kneazle he’s trying to extricate himself from, and when he does look up, his face is back to the distant expression it had worn for the majority of the week. 

“You were awesome tonight, Tys,” Nate tries, a sincere smile on his face. 

Tyson ducks his head and smiles lightly. “Thanks. You were too.” He looks back to Hagrid, then the animals arrayed around them. “Well - ‘night.”

Nate nods back at him, waving dejectedly. “‘Night.”

\---

_September 4, Second Year_

Most of the very few letters Tyson and Nate send each other over the summer include at least a half-page about what kind of quidditch training the other is getting up to, so Tyson feels relatively confident in asking Nate to practice with him once they get back to Hogwarts. He hopes it isn’t too obvious how worried he is that he won’t make it onto the Hufflepuff house team. He didn’t make it last year, and Nate breezed his way onto the Gryffindor team, so Tyson thinks that even if he can beat out people for the spot of the beater who graduated last year, somebody as good as Nate could come along to take his place - or Jordie’s. 

Just like he knew he would be, Nate is happy to practice with Tyson. However, it turns out they can’t book the quidditch pitch for just the two of them, and practicing outside on the grounds is fine, except other students keep interrupting them and trying to steal their personal quidditch balls.

Jordie and Jamie end up joining them, and JT wants to try-out this year, so they all work together, which helps keep the other students out of their way. Then, after a few nights spread out over the first two weeks of school, Sid follows them out just to do some low-key drills. So does Kessel, and Flower comes out to keep, even though he says he’s just doing it to make fun of them. It stays mostly a group of their friends from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, respectively, for the first few weeks, then Professor McGonagall shows up for one of the sessions, yelling until her hat falls off. 

Phil, Sid, and Nate all fly down to talk to her, but Tyson’s working on flying through his nerves, so he doesn’t get to experience Nate’s made-up-as-he-went idea that he and Tyson had formed a club. Sid and Phil help relay the conversation to Tyson later, but they won’t reenact it for him, so he has to imagine Nate facing off against McGonagall himself, talking his way into getting him and Tyson access to the quidditch pitch. It was a really great idea, but unfortunately, it also gave them the responsibility of being club founders, as well as president and vice-president of the brand-new Inter-house Quidditch Club. 

\---

_October 21-26, Sixth Year_

Nate finds out after the fact that he and his fellow prefects (and Tyson) got house points for all the creatures they rounded up when Gabe grumbles about evil nifflers the next morning. It’s not very many points, though, and the only reason Nate comes out earning more than he lost for the night was how many he and Tyson caught. Unfortunately, his good deed doesn’t get him out of his promised detention, which McGonagall informs him after a Transfiguration class he will serve with Tyson next week. He doesn’t have Transfiguration with Tyson, so he has no idea how well or poorly Tyson takes the news. He hasn’t really talked to Nate since then, but at least he’s not ignoring him anymore. Part of Nate wants to blame it on the upcoming quidditch game.

There’s nothing Nate loves more at Hogwarts than an actual inter-house quidditch match, but this Saturday is quite possibly the worst matchup at the absolute worst time. Gryffindor is playing Hufflepuff, and although Nate usually enjoys the challenge of playing against Tyson, just like he has since their second year, it promises to be awful if Tyson’s still mad at him about the scouts. 

Gabe gets the whole team up for an early breakfast, practically spooning food onto everyone’s plates, which normally Nate would be mad about, but Nate’s the one who told Gabe what an ideal pre-game breakfast should be, and Gabe’s following his advice. The Great Hall fills up around them, and by the time Nate’s done with his eggs he doesn’t even have to tell himself not to look up at the Hufflepuff table for Tyson. Normally on game days when one of them plays, the other is there, eating with them, hyping each other up. When they play each other, they’ve managed respectful nods at each other in passing, smack talk when the occasion calls for it, and no matter what, Nate ends up smiling.

Today he’s avoiding Tyson’s gaze because instead of the fun smack talk and respect of knowing it’ll be a hell of a game, Nate’s insides squirm around just thinking about Tyson. He doesn’t know where he stands, where _they_ stand, and the classes they have together require a lot more focus than they used to.They aren’t talking about it, just cooperating on spells and handling animals and plants, and while Nate’s grades are grateful, because Tyson’s always been the smarter of the two, Nate hates this weird alternate reality they’re living in.

Once Nate’s in the air his nerves calm down, and warming up with Mikko and Gabe, passing the quaffle back and forth, practicing a few formations, goes well. He gets a bit distracted by Sammy and EJ flying in a tight formation together as they weave in and out of their own chasers, swatting their bats at each other, and to Nate it looks like they’re trying to hit each other. If they weren’t both smiling and laughing, Nate would worry, even though they do this every game. Then, once they’re landing for a quick Gabe pep-talk in the locker room, Nate forgets to look away when EJ pulls Sammy close to him and they kiss.

EJ and Sammy have kissed pregame for the past two years, and it still surprises Nate every time. They don’t hide their relationship, but they haven’t broadcast it at all over the last year and a half, either. Nate’s stomach squeezes tightly and he turns his back on EJ and Sammy, walking over to Kendall, trying to hype her up, telling her she’s the better seeker, she’s got this.

\---

_November 12, Third Year_

“I _hate_ Transfiguration,” Tyson says angrily one night in the library, throwing down his quill on top of his not at all completed homework.

Nate doesn’t even look up from the book he’s scanning, ink blotches smudging a few pages. “No you don’t.”

It’s just them at a table in the library tonight, their friends either having already completed the homework or preferring to do it by themselves. Since Nate and Tyson accidentally started the Quidditch Club, though, their schedules have aligned so they do their homework together, run the club together, and have decided independently to write back to their families while the other is at their own Quidditch practice. 

Tyson sighs, he doesn’t hate Transfiguration, but the assignment is harder than usual and he can’t concentrate. “Fine. I hate the _library_.” He wants to throw something in frustration, but it’s the _library_ and he never wants to get reprimanded by Madam Pince again, so he _can’t_.

Nate scribbles something down before he looks up, squinting, looking confused. “Okay. We don’t have to be here.” He stretches without elaborating, leaving Tyson to watch him blankly.

“It’s thunderstorming,” he says after a few seconds.

“Hmm?” Nate looks around towards one of the windows, as if to confirm. 

“And it’s November.”

Nate screws the top onto his ink bottle and starts piling things into his bag, and Tyson’s stomach sinks. He’s standing up when he notices that Tyson hasn’t started putting anything back into his bag, and he smiles wickedly, slamming all of his books shut. “Well c’mon.”

Confused, but excited, Tyson shoves everything into his bag, following him quickly out of the library.

\---

_October 26, Sixth Year_

Madam Hooch is waiting for the two teams when they walk back onto the pitch, the crowd cheering loudly above them, and Nate’s stomach clenches unhelpfully seeing Tyson striding forward, broom in hand. They mount their brooms, and before Madam Hooch can blow her whistle, Nate hears a loud “Go quidditch!” yell from the crowd, and he’s smiling as he launches into the air, taking control of the quaffle.

When he has a spare moment to look down at the crowd after Mikko scores their first goal, he sees a large banner saying “Yay Quidditch!” right where he thought he would. He has to laugh, because instead of the usual school colors the club usually uses to decorate the banner, Battaglinoa and Packer had used rainbows and kisses to decorate, which is ridiculous, he thinks wildly, because Anya and Madison are both Gryffindors, not a couple from a different house brought together by quidditch. He can’t look at it for long, though, or even think about it, because next to the large group of people he knows are all from Quidditch Club sitting together behind the banner are some official looking adults in formal robes. 

“Fuck,” he curses under his breath, “scouts.” Then he tries to tackle Donskoi and steal the quaffle away.

\---

_November 12, Third Year_

Nate leads Tyson up quite a few staircases before Tyson has an idea where they might be going. “Nate…” Tyson says warily, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. 

“Tyson,” Nate sing-songs mockingly back. “C’mon, we’re almost there, and then we won’t hate Transfiguration.”

“I don’t hate Transfiguration,” Tyson says automatically. He’s been in this general area of the castle before, so he doesn’t feel lost, but Nate’s sure footsteps make Tyson nervous as they start walking down a dead-end corridor with a painting at the end of it. 

When they reach it, Nate confidently says, “Bowtruckles,” to the portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. As her gaze moves over to survey Tyson, he tries to look as bored as possible and not shrink away from her gaze.

He’s not sure it works, since she’s glaring at him as the portrait opens, but the portrait is swinging out on hidden hinges to reveal a hole in the wall behind. Nate climbs in first, and Tyson scrambles in behind him, thrown by the sensation and trying not to fall. The common room is entirely circular with a high ceiling, tapestries hanging on the walls, the whole space exuding a cozy, fiery warmth, reinforced by the squashy armchairs, couches, and a roaring fire. He looks around in awe, then has a visceral memory of Nate doing the same thing when he saw the Hufflepuff common room the first time and stops, following Nate casually over to a set of armchairs near the fire, putting his bag on a table. 

“So it’s a password?” Tyson says out the side of his mouth.

“Yeah,” Nate says, setting up his books and quill and ink again.

“And you have to climb through a hole in the wall.”

Nate looks at him, disbelieving, “You have to _crawl_ on the _ground_.”

Tyson ignores him, “Why isn’t the password more… Gryffindor-y?”

Nate shrugs, “I dunno, the Fat Lady picks them - last month it was ‘Pumpkin Pie.’”

“Wait, they _change_?”

“Well yeah.” Nate starts to pull out Tyson’s books too, since Tyson’s looking around in disbelief.

“But what about first years, and when you forget, and when they change, and - does she ever leave her portrait?”

Nate shrugs again, “First years learn, if you forget you don’t get in, and she lets you know they change, and if she leaves you’re just out of luck.”

Tyson scoffs, “That’s ridiculous.”

“You have _barrels_ that you _knock on_,” Nate whispers sarcastically.

“Yeah, and it takes a while to get the rhythm down - everybody remembers being a first-year soaked in vinegar, waiting for someone else to come let you in.”

“What?”

“What? It sprays you with vinegar if you do it wrong.” Tyson answers matter of factly to Nate’s confused face. When Nate starts laughing, Tyson rolls his eyes and finishes taking his homework out, smiling at the room around him.

\---

_October 26, Sixth Year_

Nate doesn’t get much of a chance to think about who’s in the stands as the game progresses, and Tyson’s in his head because of his well-timed bludgers he keeps hitting his way that Nate mostly dodges. In a small part of his brain, he wonders if Tyson’s hitting more bludgers at him than usual, or hitting them harder, but he does have the quaffle a lot, so maybe it’s that Tyson is in his head. Looming larger than Tyson though, is Grubi, guarding the goal hoops, and no matter how much he likes Phillip as a person, he can’t help but hate him with a passion any time they play Hufflepuff.

Mikko and Gabe are completely in sync with Nate, and they attack the goal hoops a lot, but they’re having a rough time scoring, because Grubi is having a great game. Most of their goals are assisted by an EJ or Sammy directed bludger, and Nate only feels like he’s caught Grubi out of position or by surprise on one goal. However, down at the other end of the pitch, Freddie is not having the best game. Nate’s focused on stealing the quaffle and doesn’t always see it, but he knows Makar is doing a hell of a job with his own bat, helping Calvy, Belly, and Donny score on Anderson.

So the game keeps tying up, and Nate can’t think about how it’ll be the girls who decide the game, their seekers will end it, because he can’t think like that, he has to score himself. Nate’s not frustrated, but the game in the middle of the pitch is more hard-hitting than their earlier game against Ravenclaw. Before he knows it, canary yellow robes are streaking down toward Anderson again, but Sammy and EJ are both there, and Nate’s the fastest flier out there, so he gets to the scoring area at the same time the Hufflepuff team does, but he briefly loses track of the quaffle. 

Anderson loses track of it for a second too, and that’s just enough time for Tyson - _Tyson_ \- to catch the quaffle with his non-bat hand and _score_. 

The crowd goes absolutely wild, and Nate doesn’t blame them. He hopes the scouts and all of Hogwarts and Tyson’s dad and _everyone _saw exactly what just happened. Tyson has scored with the quaffle a few times before, but not often - except for one memorable game against Slytherin when he scored four times - and even though the other team threw a fit, the goals were allowed. So far he’s the only beater to successfully score in a game, possibly ever. A lot of the other beaters have started trying it, and Sammy’s managed to do it in their practices, and Makar is shockingly good during club sessions, but they’re not Tyson.

Nate’s heart squeezes and his stomach swoops, even as he takes possession of the quaffle. The crowd is going berserk, and Nate wants to make them cheer for _him_, for _Gryffindor_, but he doesn’t get all the way to the other end of the pitch before Jesse and Kendall are diving through the play, looks of intense concentration on their faces.He slows down to watch, and a second later, he sees the glint of gold in Jesse’s hand, and he throws the quaffle as hard as he can toward the now unguarded goal hoops. 

He circles the pitch slowly to calm down, and his eyes scan the riotous crowd, and he notices the scouts, and Tyson’s dad. Instead of dwelling on them, Nate’s eyes are immediately drawn to his classmates clustered around the “Yay Quidditch!” sign. There are some couples kissing, and some people screaming and jumping for joy, and some people are just clinging on to their friends, laughing and yelling for fun.

It makes Nate remember that quidditch is fun, and he has fun playing it with his friends. So Nate is happy and sincerely applauding the Hufflepuff team in their handshake line. Unfortunately, that happiness only lasts until they get back to their locker room, where several scouts and a journalist are waiting for them.

\---

_April 8, Third Year_

You’d think, Nate thinks, that at the tail end of his third year at Hogwarts, he would be able to dry himself off properly with a spell, or fly himself up to Gryffindor Tower by now. Instead, he’s dripping wet from a spring quidditch practice in the middle of the Entrance Hall, too tired to even remember how many staircases are between him and Gryffindor Tower, let alone climb them.

His teammates have all started their own trek upstairs, Gabe talking animatedly to Flower about tactics, and Mikko already wearing a tired blank stare signalling his need to go to bed. Lagging behind them all, Nate drags himself through the hall not really toward the marble staircase, and Nate’s brain for a second thinks that maybe he should go to the kitchens, since there are no stairs to climb to get to the kitchens. Nate thinks about it for a second, even as his feet diverge, and he’s not really hungry. 

His feet know where they’re going, though, and Nate has gotten much more familiar with this area of the castle, and he thinks all of sudden that he doesn’t _need_ to go back to Gryffindor Tower tonight. He’s done all his homework and he’d probably just collapse onto one of the chairs or march straight up to bed -_ ugh, more stairs_, he thinks - so it doesn’t _matter_. Not really.

Nate knows the way to the kitchens, and is friendly with a few house elves he knows by name now, but he also knows which hallway ends in the barrels leading to the Hufflepuff common room, and his feet are headed there.

When Nate follows Tyson back this way because he’s grabbing something from his room or dropping off his bag, Tyson always demonstrates how he knocks on the barrels. He says it out loud each time, “Hel-ga Huff-le-puff,” Tyson enunciates animatedly to Nate, watching his face, and Tyson’s voice echoes in Nate’s head as he steps up to the barrels. 

“Helga Hufflepuff,” he says under his breath, tired and feeling stupid. Normally when Tyson does it, there’s a responding sort of _chink_ noise, and light filters in through the newly made tunnel to the common room. Instead of that, one of the barrels appears to spring a sudden leak and sprays him directly in the face. Nate just groans and leans forward over the barrels, wiping his face off on his robes, not even caring about the smell or taste of vinegar enveloping him. 

“_Hel_-ga _Huff_-le-_puff_,” Nate sing-songs under his breath, tapping it out on his fingers against the wood a few times before he stands back up and looks down the hallway behind him. No one is coming, and he can’t tell if he’s relieved or not as he starts to knock in the correct spot without thinking. 

There’s a soft, magical _chink_ Nate feels more than he hears, and he sinks quickly onto his hands and knees, crawling in towards the rich, warm light of the common room. He’s so tired, though, he doesn’t want to stand back up again, and ends up crawling along the backside of a few chairs and couches until he ends up close to the giant fireplace.

“Mackinnon, you reek of vinegar,” he hears a familiar girl’s voice say, and he looks over to see Amanda Kessel looking at him, her nose scrunched up. Her brother Phil is sitting next to her, and he can’t tell what his face is doing, but he nods at them both anyway, shrugging a little before collapsing in a tired pile on the rug in front of the fire. There’s some furniture rustling Nate hears but ignores, and for a few minutes he enjoys lying down, listening to the ambient noise of the room, and thinks how grateful he is that Hufflepuffs are low-key enough to just let him hang out here without telling anyone or yelling at him.

“Do you need help, Dogg?” Tyson’s voice asks, confused but overall amused. 

Nate turns on his back and sees Tyson sitting on the nearby couch, grinning down at him. He clears his throat, meaning to say ‘_No_,’ but instead saying, “Your floor’s really comfortable. And there’s _so many_ stairs to Gryffindor Tower.”

Tyson just laughs, nodding, but he sits down next to Nate anyway. “Oh, this _is_ really comfortable,” he says, stretching out next to him.

“Maybe there’s some kind of cushion spell on the rug,” Nate says, watching Tyson wiggle to get more comfortable.

“Probably - unless it’s the stones that are charmed - maybe Helga was really clumsy.”

Nate laughs until he’s curled up on his side, facing Tyson, who’s also giggling. They laugh themselves out and then there’s an easy silence Nate has no desire to break, listening to the fire behind him and the room around them.

“I think if you just smelled like vinegar it would be fine, you could bunk up here. But I can tell you just came from practice even if I didn’t know you just came from practice. You smell awful, mate.” Tyson says nonchalantly, turning on his side to face Nate.

He makes a noncommittal noise. “Yeah, I know. I don’t need to sleep here, I just wanted to lie down for a bit.”

It doesn’t make sense to Nate, but Tyson’s nodding along like he understands. “Okay,” he says, then switches subjects, and they talk for a while until Nate really does start to fall asleep. Tyson prods him awake and forces him out of the room to go upstairs, and even though Nate’s still really tired, it seems easier to climb the stairs now.

\---

_October 26, Sixth Year_

The Gryffindor common room is quiet, more like a Tuesday after classes than a Saturday after a quidditch game, and Nate finds it gloomy. 

“Nate, are you moping? Stop moping,” Gabe calls to him from the team group over by one of the windows. 

“‘m not moping,” he answers, stepping over to them, butterbeer in hand.

“You’re _pining_,” EJ says, impishly, making Sammy, basically sitting in EJ’s lap and wrapped in his arms, laugh. Nate inexplicably hates them both.

“Sorry if I’m bummed we lost the match,” he says instead, taking a drink of butterbeer and consciously not looking at EJ and Sammy.

Freddie snorts into his own drink, then says, “Are you?”

“Of course I am!” Nate replies hotly.

Mikko chimes in then, his mouth full of kitchen-stolen cream puffs, “You don’t care if it’s Hufflepuff.”

He can’t think of a reply to that objectively true statement, so he doesn’t say anything, just continues to down his drink.

“Just go down to their party,” Gabe tells him, and Nate shakes his head. “He _wants you there_,” he says again, shaking Nate a bit.

“No, he doesn’t,” he says without thinking, then in the face of EJ, Sammy, and Mikko’s smirks and raised eyebrows he adds, “his dad might still be here anyway.”

“Anybody wanna play exploding snap?” Kendall asks, brightly.

\---

_October 26, Fourth Year_

Quidditch Club is basically just a group of Tyson and Nate’s friends getting together to play pick up games of quidditch, and a few people who have become their friends through joining them. Saturday meetings are pretty rare, since the house teams all like to use the weekends for extra-long practices, but today is that one rare Saturday.

“Come on,” Burky says, “we should do a tournament.”

Knight visibly rolls her eyes and gives their dwindling group a peace out sign, but most of the guys look like they’re considering the idea. Jamie’s watching the retreating figures of the people who needed to go “do homework,” which is mostly the group of Slytherins in the club, Seguin, Val, Mitch, and Frankie all disappearing back into the castle.

“Sure, but Tyson’s on my team,” he says, turning back to the group slowly making their way back to the castle.

“You can’t just call dibs on a teammate,” Nate protests.

“Then why does JT always call dibs on Z when we play?” Nietsy chimes in. “And if we’re doing a tournament we’re playing by JT rules, right?”

“Yes!” Burky yells, pointing in triumph at Nieto for his great idea.

Tyson, suddenly feeling off-balance realizing the group he’s in is now entirely Gryffindors, tries changing the subject. “Where is JT anyway? Did he walk Junior back to the common room or something?”

It gets a snicker out of Mikko, but the conversation ignores him. 

“If we’re playing JT rules Tyson is _definitely _on my team,” Jamie says.

“We have to make brackets, you can’t just call dibs,” Nate repeats angrily, throwing an arm around Tyson’s shoulders.

“What kind of tournament do you have that _JT _has rules for?” Tyson asks Nate specifically as the other guys begin to talk louder and louder around them.

“It’s exploding snap plus gobstones, JT just came up with the rules to combine them and lets somebody win. It’s easy.” Nate answers casually, leading them in through the front doors.

“And Chubbs trying to claim me as a teammate means it’s not competitive at all, right?” Tyson grins as they head towards the marble staircase.

“Hey! I’ve known him longer, Dogg, just ‘cause you’re attached at the hip doesn’t mean you can steal him!” Jamie interrupts, coming over to Tyson’s other side.

“I dunno, it seems like a dumb Gryffindor game to me, and since I’m a Hufflepuff…”

“No! Tys! We’ve already figured out who’s in it, and you’re in it!” Nietsy calls.

“You can’t back out now, we’ll smuggle you past the Fat Lady if we need to!” Burkey says, with an excited jump push at Tyson on the first landing.

“_Fine_,” Tyson says, pretending to be exasperated with a big sigh, “I’ll learn your stupid game.”

Burky whoops behind him, Mikko manages to sling an arm around his neck, and he manages a smile over at Nate, who’s already smiling at him.

\---

_October 29, Sixth Year_

Nate doesn’t make a habit of getting detentions, but when he does, they always seem to require meeting a teacher in the entrance hall so he can be escorted to his doom. It’s never actually that bad, even when he has to go with Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest, but it always _feels_ like his doom. He’s there first, meeting Slughorn and Sprout waiting for him, and before long he sees Tyson approaching them, and his stomach does a weird flop. It doesn’t feel so much like doom anymore, but he’s about to spend a few hours alone with Tyson - or close to alone - and he hasn’t done that in a while.

Tyson just takes his place in front of their professors, and Nate knows he’s right on time, and the professors do too, so they launch into their detention spiel. They seem almost cheerful about the detention they have planned, which confuses Nate because Professor Sprout is the one who _gave _him detention in the first place. But it seems they’ll just be preparing potions ingredients from the greenhouses - preserving some, making some ready for use by first years, and essentially re-stocking the shelves of the storerooms. Both of them will be checking in periodically, Sprout bringing them more plants, and Slughorn making sure they’re doing it properly. 

Neither of them seem concerned that Nate or Tyson will have a problem with the task, and neither act like this is a detention, just that they’re helping them out with their regular day to day duties. Nate can tell by their tone, because it’s the same one used by professors when addressing the prefects who are helping out around the castle, and he wonders if Tyson can tell, too - he was helping with the creature roundup with a group of prefects.

They’re led down into a room adjacent to the main potions classroom that has a large doorway into one of the storerooms. A variety of plants and jars are waiting for them on the tables, and it fills Nate with a new kind of dread, because he knows how to prepare all of these plants, and they’re all _easy_ and there are _hundreds _of them.

“Okay, you boys get to work, and I’ll check on you later,” Slughorn says cheerfully before leaving, closing the door behind him.

Nate looks over at Tyson and sees he’s already got his wand out. “So, do you want to divide and conquer or do it together?”

“Together,” Nate says quickly, taking out his own wand.

They pick a spot at one of the tables randomly, and they sit across from each other, working together on the same heap of plants. It only takes their first jar before they have a rhythm down, so even when they’re sealing a jar or starting a new one, one of them is always working on the plants themselves. Figuring it out so quickly leads to a borderline awkward silence forming, and Nate, desperate to break it, says the first thing that pops into his head.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but you kicked ass in the quidditch match.” 

Tyson smiles quickly. “I did alright, you were the one killing it.”

Nate grins at him, “What, did you forget about how you absolutely schooled the whole team and scored? We all looked like idiots - the crowd loved it.”

“Well, it’s always easy to make Gryffindors look like idiots,” Tyson grins over at Nate, and they both laugh.

“Seriously, though, you turned the game around - that’s probably why Jesse beat out Kendall - everybody was watching you.” Nate can feel his checks and neck go pink, not letting himself say how _he _couldn’t stop watching Tyson. 

“Don’t let Jesse hear you say that,” Tyson says, and Nate nods.

“Yeah, you’re right, Jesse’s really good; she and Kendall are really evenly matched.”

Tyson takes a long moment to seal a jar before he says, “You, Gabe, and Mikko totally outflew Donny, Matt, and Belley, though.”

“Except bludgers kept attacking us - Mikko almost fell off his broom twice. That was _your_ bludger.” Nate says pointedly.

He just shrugs, “Cale had a lot of good bludgers too.”

Nate just scoffs, “Yeah, it’s almost like the Hufflepuff team has the best beaters in the school.” 

Tyson doesn’t look up at him, eyes on the pile of plants he’s shoving into a glass jar, but he’s still smiling. They finish another two jars in sync before Tyson casually says, “Did you see the banner Anya and Madison made?”

“Yeah,” Nate laughs, “it was great. I don’t know how we’re gonna top it for next game.”

“Hmm,” Tyson looks up at Nate then. “My Dad didn’t think it was very good.”

“I thought I saw him in the crowd,” Nate says, calmly. “Did he stick around after the game?”

He nods, sending a giant group of jars off towards the storeroom, while he and Nate move over to the next table, to another pile of a different plant. “Yeah, we ended up eating dinner together, talking about the game.”

“Did you miss the party?”

“All the good parts,” Tyson shrugs.

Nate’s trying to decide whether to tell him about how he figured that, but his friends were trying to make him go down anyway, struggling a bit with the new jars when Tyson speaks again.

“He was sitting next to the three scouts who came to the game - he said they were impressed.”

“Oh?” Nate’s staring at Tyson, trying his hardest to read his mind when the door bangs open and he drops the jar in his hands.

“So, my boys, how are we doing?” Slughorn asks.

\---

_February 16, Fourth Year_

“You’re sure it’s this way?” Tyson asks Nate again. It’s dinner time, so there’s no reason to sneak along the corridor, but neither of them have ever been down this particular hallway before.

Technically they shouldn’t be here, but two weeks ago, climbing out of the Hufflepuff barrels, Nate had commented that they should see all of the common rooms, not just their own. Then Tyson fell in love with the idea and made Nate ask Sid where the Ravenclaw common room is and how they get in. Sid had told them where it was, but he said it didn’t have a password, and there wasn’t a special sequence or anything. “Just knock,” he’d said, but Tyson didn’t like the way he was grinning.

“Yeah, it’s this way,” Nate says, leading the way, his wand out, like he’s expecting them to get ambushed at any time.

Instead of making fun of him, Tyson follows, taking out his own wand. It doesn’t take long in the well-lit corridor until they come upon a dead-end with a large door and a giant eagle door knocker.

Nate stops and looks back at Tyson. “Sid said just knock.”

Tyson puts his wand away and steps up to the door, and knocks. The eagle’s mouth opens and starts talking. “What is the most dangerous magical animal?”

Nate’s wand has dropped to his side, and he’s standing looking at the knocker with his mouth open. “We know this, right Nate?” Tyson says, grinning over at him.

“What?”

“What’s the most dangerous magical animal?”

“An animal you don’t respect,” Nate says to Tyson automatically, still confused.

“Well-put,” the eagle says, and the door creaks open.

“Oh,” Nate says, hurriedly shoving his wand in his pocket and moving forward. 

“A door, that’s nice,” Tyson says, walking through it behind Nate.

He laughs, and stops just inside the door, looking around. Tyson stumbles into him, and follows his gaze. The Ravenclaw common room is like the Gryffindor one, except the windows are giant, the chairs don’t look as comfortable, and there are bookcases everywhere. The blue and bronze color theme Tyson could have guessed.

“Act normal,” Tyson hisses in Nate’s ear, and they start walking forward to the windows. It’s a tower, and it looks out on the opposite side of the castle than the Gryffindor Tower does, and Tyson has to say, “I guess Ravenclaws get the best view.”

Nate scoffs at that, and a few people sitting in the room, noses in their books or head down writing, look up at them. Tyson can feel the possibility of a month’s worth of detention hanging in the air, and starts walking toward the staircase he just saw a guy come out of. Nate follows silently, and all of a sudden they’re at the fourth year dormitory door.

“Wanna mess with Kerf’s stuff?” Nate asks. Tyson just shrugs, looking at the door. “What about Naz’s stuff?” Tyson shakes his head.

They keep climbing until they get to the sixth year door, and Nate goes in. “You wanna mess with Sid’s stuff? He’s the one who told us where to go.” Tyson says, looking around the room curiously as he walks in behind Nate. 

Tyson can’t tell which bed belongs to who - there’s more quidditch stuff lying around than he thinks can belong to just Sid and Tanger - but Nate seems to know which bed he’s looking for and plops down on it. “I’m not gonna mess with Sid’s stuff, I’m gonna take something,” Nate says, grinning. 

He reaches under the mattress, roots around for a few seconds and pulls a wad of something small out from under it. His grin is triumphant as he stares up at Tyson, and the feeling of mischievous success starts to infect Tyson. He starts looking around the room, considering what kind of tricks they might play. Nate catches the glint in his eye, and Tyson grins back at him, saying the magic words, “What would Flower do?”

Tyson expects a laugh out of Nate, but instead his entire face lights up. “Lundqvist’s bed is upstairs.”

There’s a twinge of annoyance at the mention of his name, the recent Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw match still in his head, when Henrik had managed to completely shut down their team, no matter how many bludgers he and Jordie pelted towards him. Then Tyson realizes what Nate’s presenting to him, an opportunity to mess with Lundqvist in some way. He grins back at Nate as he watches him get up off the bed, stuffing whatever it is of Sid’s safely in an inside pocket.

Nate sees Tyson’s eyes follow whatever it is, and he reassures Tyson. “I’m just borrowing it. ‘Just knock,’” he scoffs and rolls his eyes, leading the way upstairs, away from the slightly more noisy common room.

What they decide Flower would do, in the end, is stick several of Henrik’s items upside down on the ceiling with magic, rearranging some others, and having some other things just float in the air. Then they improvise and ‘borrow’ two of what must be Geno’s books from his bedside table and pretend to read them all the way down the staircase and through the common room until they’re racing back along the corridor, laughing the whole way.

\---

_October 29, Sixth Year_

Slughorn doesn’t stick around supervising them much longer than it takes to make sure they’d put the jars away in the right spot (they did), check they were preparing all the plants properly (they are), and see what kind of progress they’re making (a lot). He tells them Professor Sprout should be down shortly with a new batch, and even as Tyson tries not to grimace at the thought, Nate gives his best prefect smile and nod.

They wait a bit after the door closes behind Slughorn to look up at each other, and Nate says, “I don’t think he’s gonna come back, he’s already had a few glasses.”

Tyson laughs, “Shit, I thought that was just the pickling spells we were using, that smell was _him_?”

Nate nods with a grimace. “I’m glad he never invited me to anything Slug Club.”

“Yeah, I always thought that was weird. It’s not like the Slug Club is the same time as Quidditch Club - I mean, Z goes - Seggy goes - hell, even Marie-Philip goes.” Tyson shouldn’t be thinking this much about it, probably, but he can’t help it. “Sid went.”

Nate looks up at him, and something in his gaze makes Tyson’s stomach flip. “I’m not Sid,” he says seriously, like he doesn’t already know that.

“No, you’re better,” Tyson says sincerely before he can stop himself. No one else would agree with him, but it’s true.

“That’s not -” Nate’s face is red and he’s gone back to hurriedly slicing and peeling and pickling. “I’m not _better _than Sid,” he starts again as they fall back into their rhythm. “I’m just not him - he knew what he wanted - he went to the Slug Club and met the scouts and the people already on the teams and…” he trails off and looks up at Tyson.

He looks back at Nate, and feels like they’re up in the air, trying to fly together for their lives. Except they’re not riding brooms, and the only thing keeping him afloat is keeping eye contact with Nate, desperately hoping they’re going in the same direction. Trying not to think too much, Tyson leans forward on his invisible broom to go forward.

“The scouts who came to the game were really impressed,” he says quietly. “They loved you.”

Nate exhales loudly, and if he didn’t know better, Tyson would think he was in pain. “I don’t care,” he says, looking down at the jar in his hands. “I mean, I want to play quidditch professionally… but I care more about which scouts loved _you_.”

All Tyson can do in the face of Nate looking back at him is fumble with sealing the jars in front of him, unable to figure out if he should send them to the storeroom yet, his cheeks pink, his heart hammering. “Dad didn’t say what they thought about me.”

“Whichever team’s smart enough to try and sign you… that’s where I wanna go.”

There are around thirty jars floating in the air Tyson is no longer thinking about as he tries to remember how to breathe, because it wasn’t supposed to go like this _at all_, but Nate’s sitting here, his eyes soft and hopeful, and Tyson --

“Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Barrie!” The door slams open, revealing Professor Sprout, her arms full of leafy greens. She puts the greens down on the table before heading into the storeroom after the floating jars, and emerges from the storeroom with a large box and starts putting the greens into it.

“I thought we were supposed to prepare those?” Tyson asks blankly, turning around to watch her.

She shakes her head. “No, I thought maybe some other ingredients would be ready for harvesting, but they’re not, and I thought you had enough to do already.” She looks around at the mostly empty tables and smiles at them, hands on her hips. “I’m impressed, boys, I thought you’d be here another hour at least.”

Tyson’s happy he might be able to pass off his pink cheeks as enjoying the compliment, but Nate says, all the confidence in the world, “We work well together.”

Professor Sprout nods at Nate, taking the box back into the storeroom, now full, and as she’s leaving, says, smiling, “I’ll leave you two to finish up, and then you’re free to go.”

“Thanks,” Tyson manages before the door closes behind her.

\---

_May 16, Fifth Year_

For the rest of fourth year and most of their fifth, the Slytherin House is something of an elusive snitch for Nate and Tyson. There are a handful of Slytherins in Quidditch Club, but no one they’re super close to, and Nate refuses to ask Brad. Once Nate had returned what he ‘borrowed’ from both Sid and Geno to Sid, Sid hadn’t talked to Nate for a week, randomly flicking jinxes at him from across the Great Hall. 

They’re studying for their O.W.L. exams and Nate hasn’t thought about their plan to sneak into the Slytherin common room in weeks, trying to memorize spells and theory and remembering to eat and sleep. Tyson’s started to reach his limit, though, and he keeps pestering Jamie with questions, and Nate just thinks they’re doing a poor job of quizzing each other. Then he hears Tyson say, “C’mon, you’ve followed him _once_, haven’t you?” and Nate sits down on Jamie’s other side.

“I haven’t _followed him_,” Jamie says irritably. “We walk down together sometimes, and I couldn’t tell you where it is.” He stands up, glaring at Tyson. 

“Just because you’re staring at him the whole time doesn’t mean you don’t know where it is,” Tyson presses, ignoring the hard set of Jamie’s jaw. 

He doesn’t even respond to that, picking up his books and grabbing his book bag off the chair, turning to go. “Bye, Nate,” he says stiffly, walking out of the library.

Nate raises his eyebrows at Tyson, who opens his mouth to respond when Madam Pince appears above them, glaring so viciously they immediately pack their bags and leave. He can tell Tyson needs a break, so Nate leads them down into the kitchens so they can maybe get a snack and talk to the house elves, which always cheers Tyson up. By the time Tyson’s calmed down enough to eat several eclairs, he’s all ears to hear about the house elves’ families and who’s with which family now. When the gossip runs out, Nate starts walking toward Gryffindor Tower, knowing Tyson will follow, and eventually Tyson explains that he was trying to figure out where the Slytherin House is, “Y’know, using Chubbs’ crush on Seggy,” he says nonchalantly.

In the end, Nate agrees to help Tyson figure it out _before_ O.W.L.s, but only so that by the time they get back down to the Hufflepuff common room they can go inside and study more. Of course, the next Quidditch Club, Tyson manages to convince Tyler to tell him what the current password is, claiming he wants to compare it to Gryffindor’s, and that he “couldn’t find the entrance anyway.” And if he actually wanted to get in, he’d just ask his sister. (Nate had brought up asking Victoria about where her common room was, but Tyson was adamant that she would never tell them _and_ she would get them in trouble, just for fun. Knowing Victoria, Nate believed him.)

So the Saturday before O.W.L. exams start, while there’s a Slytherin quidditch practice going on, Nate and Tyson are wandering through the dungeons, searching for the entrance to the Slytherin common room. 

“He could’ve been lying,” Nate says, watching Tyson examine the walls around them, wishing they were hanging out in the Hufflepuff common room where it’s warm and comfortable.

“He wasn’t,” Tyson says again, stopping to look at a stretch of blank wall. “I don’t think Seggy could come up with a password that stupid anyway.” 

Nate notices Tyson’s excitement and looks over to the wall in front of them. _Well_, he thinks, _if you wanted to hide a common room, a blank wall does it_.

“You think this is it?” Nate asks, and Tyson just smirks over at him.

“Masterpiece,” Tyson says loudly and clearly in the direction of the wall, which appears to melt away in front of them, revealing an entrance.

“A hole,” Nate says, grinning at the triumph on Tyson’s face, fading into annoyance. He steps forward and through the hole expertly, knowing Tyson’s close behind, and stops not far into the room. 

There’s a lot more people in the common room than he was anticipating, considering how nice it is outside, but he figures exams are barely days away, and a lot of people have their noses in books. He and Tyson hadn’t talked much about what they would do if they found their way in, so Nate starts to wander away to the left, wondering which direction the dorms are in, Tyson acting infinitely more casually than he is. 

Looking around, Nate’s disappointed there aren’t some magical windows down here to let light in, even if it is the dungeons, and he feels bad for the Slytherins, every piece of furniture looking extremely uncomfortable. The colors are rich, and it reminds him of the rich elegance of parties he’s gone to with Tyson over a few holidays. Tyson’s leading them casually through the room though, and now Nate can tell where the dormitories are, and they’re heading towards what he hopes is the guys’ one.

The stairs are more confusing than either the Gryffindor or Hufflepuff ones, but they find their way to their classmates’ dorm, and Nate pauses. “I don’t really wanna mess with Frankie or Val’s stuff - they got absolutely creamed in the last match.” Tyson looks hard at Nate’s face then, and Nate suddenly realizes how close together they’re standing when Tyson’s face lights up with an idea.

“You’re right, Frankie and Val are cool, they don’t deserve that - but you know who does? Dutchy.”

Nate knows his smile matches Tyson’s wide grin, and now that they have the idea, they rush to find the sixth year dorms where Duchene’s stuff must be, and then they’re shutting the door behind them in an empty room with five four-poster beds. They double check the bedside tables of each space to be sure it’s his stuff, then, like they do it every day, there’s a whoosh at the flick of their wands, and everything is out of his trunk and wardrobe, floating in the air or sticking to the walls and ceiling.

“It doesn’t feel like enough,” Nate says, looking around the room, knowing it only takes a few well chosen spells or a really great house elf to put everything back how it was. “What does Duchene really hate?”

Tyson shrugs at him, then launches himself onto the four-poster. “A Hufflepuff in his bed?” He wiggles, getting comfortable, and the way he’s smiling makes Nate hop onto the bed after him.

“A Gryffindor in his bed,” he says, laughing as he and Tyson squirm around trying to fit comfortably, laughing. 

Once they’re settled on their sides, Tyson says, “A Gryffindor _and_ a Hufflepuff in his bed,” and Nate realizes again how close they are to each other. Except normally if they’re this close, it’s because they’re touching in some way, like a hug or dragging each other through the crowd of people in Diagon Alley or Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. It feels weird to him, so he throws an arm over Tyson’s side.

“Maybe,” Nate says, trying to get his brain to catch up to whatever his eyes are doing, looking at Tyson’s lips. “Two guys… a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff… kissing,” his mouth says, and then his mouth _does_, and then he’s _kissing Tyson_, and Tyson is _kissing him back_.

The mechanics of kissing aren’t new to Nate, but it’s never felt like this before. Part of his brain thinks that it’s just the way boys kiss, but the feeling filling up his chest is thrumming happily because _Tyson_. Tyson’s lips are moving gently against Nate’s, and relief washes over him that somehow they’ve still managed to be on the same page. He’s so relieved and happy he just wants to kiss Tyson, then he realizes that’s exactly what he’s doing, and tries not to think about it. He feels stupid in his giddiness, even as Tyson brings him in closer, a hand on the side of his face.

Nate doesn’t remember the change, but he’s on his back, Tyson laying half on top of him as they kiss, when Tyson pulls back a bit. He rests his forehead against Nate’s, breathing as heavily as Nate is. He meets Nate’s eye, and the bright sparkle in them makes Nate’s heart swell. “This was a really, _really_ good idea,” he says before lowering himself down to kiss Nate again softly.

A hand in Tyson’s hair and one secure around his waist, Nate flips them both so he’s leaning over Tyson to kiss him. Instead of the light gentle kisses they were doing, Nate deepens the kiss, and when Tyson responds with equal enthusiasm, all thought is pushed from his head. He doesn’t know what to even do with his hands, but something tells him that if he keeps kissing Tyson, they’ll figure it out.

After what feels like a minute, there’s noise coming from the staircase leading to the dormitory, and they spring apart, sitting upright in Duchene’s bed. Nate looks over frantically at Tyson and can’t do much else, because Tyson’s hair is more of a mess than usual, sticking up in all directions, his curls much looser than Nate’s ever seen them.

The door opens suddenly, and Tyler Seguin is standing in the doorway. His face goes from suspicion to absolute glee when he sees the scattered items all around the room and then Nate and Tyson on the bed. 

He’s grinning widely at them, leaning against the doorframe, a beater’s bat dangling from his hand. “Quidditch practice is over,” he says, arms crossed like he’s waiting for them. 

It doesn’t make sense in Nate’s head, but he stands up anyway, not looking at Tyson, but at Seggy, who might mess this all up for them. 

“You’re not a sixth year,” Tyson says.

“Colesy is,” Tyler responds, indicating the bat in his hand and walking over to what must be Cole’s bed. “You’re not Slytherins.” He puts the bat down and turns back to Nate and Tyson, smirking.

Nate looks awkwardly between himself, Tyson, the items floating around the room, and Tyler. “Are there a bunch of people behind you?” he asks, ready to draw his wand and fight.

Tyler shakes his head. “Nah - everybody went to dinner. And I need to meet Benny, so,” he beckons them toward the door. They hesitate, but end up following him down the stairs. “I can’t wait until Dutchy freaks out,” he says, smiling, and Nate and Tyson end up chuckling with him.

When they reach the Great Hall, Nate’s surprised that dinner’s in full swing, because he thought it was at least a half hour away. No one is surprised to see him and Tyson enter together, or sit down at the same table, and no one asks him where they’ve been. He and Tyson meet each other’s gaze somewhere between the potatoes and the sprouts, and they both smile, and everything slots back into place.

\---

_October 29, Sixth Year_

After Professor Sprout tells them they’re done with detention, filling the remaining jars and sending them to their spots in the storeroom takes hardly any time at all. They probably could have worked faster, Tyson thinks, but he keeps getting distracted, smiling up at Nate, and Nate’s smiling back at him, and his chest feels like it might burst.

He wants to ask Nate what he means, he wants to talk to him about their after-graduation plans in-depth, he wants to _kiss_ Nate, but they’re so close to being done and he doesn’t really want to do any of that in the _dungeons_. So he tries to focus on filling and sealing jars, and before he knows it, he and Nate are walking through the castle together. Tyson isn’t sure how to bring it up again, if he needs to say sorry anymore from their fight about quidditch prospects and connections.

“I think that was the easiest detention I’ve ever had,” Nate says before Tyson can make up his mind. “Including that time with Hagrid in the forest.”

“Yeah, no rashes, no bowtruckle bites… and we’re done before curfew,” Tyson replies, smiling.

“We could go get in more trouble if we wanted,” Nate grins suggestively at Tyson, and Tyson can feel his whole head basically go pink.

“I don’t know,” he replies as they climb stairs, “I think the Astronomy Tower is probably full by now.”

There’s silence for a beat, and Tyson thinks he went too far, too fast, and he can pass it off as a joke, when Nate, his voice deep and serious, says, “There are other towers,” and bumps playfully into Tyson.

Tyson bumps back into him, smiling, and looks over at him, grinning. He should kiss him right here in the Entrance Hall, not caring who sees. 

They slow down near the foot of the marble staircase, not knowing if they’re climbing it or not, and Tyson ends up leaning against it, facing Nate, who’s hesitating at the edge of the railing. “So what did you get detention for, anyway?” Nate asks, looking down at his hands, suddenly bashful.

Tyson takes a few seconds to consider the question, and whether or not to admit the truth, then shrugs. “Got caught in the Gryffindor common room when McGonagall grabbed all the prefects and Big Head Gabe to round up the escaped nifflers … you?”

“Same thing, I guess,” Nate says, shrugging a little.

“I fucking missed you,” Tyson says, moving forward, closer to Nate, and Nate looks up at him. He reaches forward to take Nate’s hand, and tells him the truth. “I wanna play wherever you do, if I can. And maybe I do know people - but I’d rather talk you up to them than try and buy my way onto a team.” He closes his eyes for a second to sort his thoughts out, because he doesn’t want another fight about it, and he feels Nate squeeze his hand. “If I get drafted by a team I want it to be because I’m good enough, not because my Dad talked somebody into it.”

Nate steps closer to Tyson, and he practically whispers, “You _are_ good enough.”

“So are you,” Tyson adds, reaching for Nate’s other hand, and they intertwine easily. Now they’re standing so close together they could rest their foreheads together, but he’s watching Nate instead. He wants so badly to give in and kiss him already, but he wants to be sure. He needs to be sure.

They’d kissed before, once, and Tyson couldn’t stop thinking about it, which actually helped him calm down and do better on his O.W.L.s. He’s kept thinking about that kiss, which distracted and de-stressed him through all the exams. But even after the exams were over and things went back to normal, Nate kept not bringing it up, or acting any differently, and Tyson realized it might have just been an isolated, pranking incident. Maybe Nate regretted it and never wanted to again.

If Tyson only got one incredible kiss with his best friend, and he still got to be his best friend, Tyson told himself he was okay with that.

Of course, his heart is hammering against his chest now, and never kissing Nate again is no longer an option. He notices Nate’s eyes are flicking down to look at Tyson’s lips, and he smiles, leaning in to capture Nate’s lips.

“NO KISSING IN THE ENTRANCE HALL!” Peeves hollers directly over their heads, then, as they jolt apart, zooming higher above them, even as Tyson tries to pull him down out of the air.

“PEEVES!” he yells angrily, remembering to brandish his wand even as Peeves zooms up the stairs, cackling. 

It feels like cold water has been dropped on their heads to Tyson, and he looks back to Nate, pissed at Peeves, and their now ruined moment, but Nate’s smiling. His eyes are soft as he looks at Tyson, and it washes some of the anger off Tyson. He’s seen that expression on Nate’s face before, but only ever briefly, when they’re studying together late, or in a huge group playing games. 

With a small chuckle, Nate steps back up to Tyson and takes one of his hands. “Do you want to risk detention tonight?” he asks, leaning further into him.

It’s infinitely tempting, but Tyson realizes now that it’s later than he originally thought and shakes his head. “No, but we can tomorrow.”

He leans back in to Nate then, and kisses him quickly on the mouth. “Goodnight,” he says to a motionless Nate, turning toward the Hufflepuff Den, feeling lighter than air.

\---

_November 9, Sixth Year_

When Nate and Tyson do make it to what they think is a suitable spot for not getting detention, they’re interrupted by JT and Jost, who look as annoyed to see them as Nate and Tyson are to be interrupted. Nate tries not to remember the painful five minutes of conversation that followed, when Tyson Junior explained that this was _their_ makeout spot, that he and JT had figured out all of the best hiding spots between Gryffindor Tower and Hufflepuff Den. Then Junior had suggested they come up with a schedule, and Nate tried very hard to apparate on the spot even though he knew it wouldn’t work.

He tries not to think about that, and tries to ignore the obvious fact that Tyson talks to Jost regularly and clearly they _have_ figured out a schedule. Today’s the Quidditch Club post-game scrimmage, though, and Jost and JT are in front of him, playing good quidditch on his team, and the memory keeps resurfacing. Not very many people officially know Nate and Tyson are dating, even though lots of people assume, from what Colin tells them. 

Tyson likes to roll his eyes at any comments people make about them, ignoring the person or comment. Nate usually ends up laughing at the combination of expressions of Tyson and whoever it is, because very little about their relationship has actually changed. Just the hiding spots JT and Jost figured out, and sometimes they sleep in each other’s beds, which confuses the house elves, even after Tyson has a chat with them about laundry. 

Pretty much the entire quidditch club assumes at this point, and they’re okay with that, so when Nate and Tyson are both on the sidelines for their team, they’re holding hands.

“Knock her off her broom!” Tyson is yelling at the figures in the air. Nate notices that in this shift the people in the air are all girls, and it makes him smile, because it’s clearly the dirtiest shift of the scrimmage so far. 

They don’t use the quidditch stadium for the scrimmage game after a house team game because it’s a lot harder to substitute players in, and a lot of people who aren’t in the club like to come down and watch. Unintentionally, the game never starts at the time they mean to on the Saturday or Sunday they schedule it, and the section of the grounds they use for their makeshift, smaller pitch changes, too. So most people just wander by and plop onto the grass far enough from the sidelines to watch, and it’s the right level of casual for their club. 

Originally when the Quidditch Club first started, Nate and Tyson decided they wanted to play a scrimmage after a house team match because they wanted to actually play on the same team for once. As the club grew, they ended up limiting the number of actual quidditch house team players allowed in, so only a few of them get to play together anymore, especially since players from the houses who didn’t just play have to be captains for the scrimmage. Today it’s Seguin and Kerfoot, and it’s a good system;, it’s nice to see Jamie and Tyler play together, or Kerfoot and JT. 

“So you two finally figured out your shit,” EJ’s voice calls out from behind them, his arm securely around Sammy’s shoulders as they walk casually up to the pitch to watch and heckle.

Nate grins and is tempted to say or do something stupid about how EJ’s not the only one with a cute boyfriend anymore, but he has no idea how Tyson would react to that. 

Tyson, however, only tilts away from the action on the pitch enough so he can see EJ and Sammy out of the corner of his eye. “You can’t even talk, Johnson,” he says loudly enough for most of the sideline to hear him. “You were drunk and complaining to me about how much you liked G when he walked into the common room and you _didn’t stop talking_.” He shoots EJ a look with his eyebrows raised that EJ pointedly ignores. “It’s your dumb luck G liked you too.”

“No,” Sammy says, shaking his head at Tyson, “I was coming to yell at him and kiss him anyway.”

“No you weren’t,” EJ says looking down at him, bemused.

“You were being stupid, and I was going to yell at you and kiss you until you stopped being stupid.” Sammy says matter of factly before turning his attention back to the people flying down for a shift change. 

Tyson takes off, laughing, flying straight toward an incoming bludger, and Nate watches the game for a bit, waiting for his turn to fly into the fray. Before he gets the opportunity, though, he notices there’s an adult walking towards their game from the direction of the gates, and he feels nervous and doesn’t know why. 

He cycles in before whoever it is reaches their makeshift pitch. When he touches down on the ground again, there’s a fit looking man standing somewhere in the middle of their sideline, watching the game above avidly. Tyson’s still in the air, so Nate’s instinct is to ignore the man and keep watching him. Then he remembers that he’s literally the president of the club, so he actually has the responsibility to see who this is and why they’re here. 

Sidling over to the man, Nate notices that he’s got a small notebook and pencil in his hand, and he’s making notes as he watches everyone fly around. This irks Nate, so he loudly clears his throat when he’s standing next to him.

“Hello,” the man turns to Nate, a smile wide on his face, and Nate sees that even though the man is still very fit his face is old and tired, his hair gray. “I’m Joe Sakic; are you Nathan Mackinnon?”

The name tugs at Nate’s memory, and he automatically looks up at Tyson flying through a group of chasers with his beater’s bat held high. “Yeah, I’m Nathan Mackinnon.” 

“It’s good to meet you,” Sakic says, following Nate’s gaze up to Tyson, who slips through a few chasers, grabbing the quaffle and hitting a nearby bludger towards Frankie before scoring. 

Tyson whoops and flies in a small victory loop before everything resets, and when Nate looks over, he can see the awe on Sakic’s face. “And who’s that?”

“Tyson Barrie,” Nate says proudly.

“Barrie?”

“Yeah, he started the Quidditch Club with me,” Nate says, pretending he doesn’t know what that question with that inflection means.

Sakic doesn’t respond right away, watching the quidditch overhead with a practiced gaze. “When Crosby told me about the scrimmage you put on I thought he was joking, but then I got excited. I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.”

“It’s open to everyone,” Nate says, confused, and luckily Tyson lands next to them then.

“We gotta take a time-out, Seggy can’t remember what the score is, he’s too busy mooning over Chubbs.”

“Doesn’t Kerf know the score, then?” Nate asks, and Tyson makes a face at him that clearly says _you would think_.

The rest of the two teams land as Nate and Tyson look around for some of their more loyal watchers, but no one is watching that intently. Looking back at the rest of the club members, though, there are a few people who look a little less or a little more annoyed than they normally would be.

“Brownie, do you know what the score is?”

He grins and nods at Nate and Tyson. “Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“Two-hundred and seventy to three-hundred and fifty,” he pauses for a long time with Nate just looking at him. “Kerfoot’s team.”

“Thanks.”

Tyson squares himself up to Nate and says, “Wanna go and end this thing?”

“How does the game end without seekers?” Sakic asks, like he’d been having a casual conversation with them the whole time, and Tyson looks up at him for the first time.

“Uh, Tyson, this is Joe Sakic, Mr. Sakic, this is Tyson Barrie.”

Tyson actually reaches out to shake Sakic’s hand, who takes it, and says, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Barrie, co-founder of the infamous Quidditch Club.”

“Infamous, huh?”

Sakic nods, “Yeah, but the real story should be you scoring with a beater’s bat in your hand - are you normally a chaser?”

“No,” Tyson answers, grinning proudly, “I’m a beater.”

“Hey! Can we play, please?” Seguin hollers over at the rest of the sidelines.

“_You_ forgot the score!” Nate yells back, readying his broom to kick-off again.

Tyson pulls a face in Tyler and Jamie’s direction, and then says to Nate, not bothering to keep his voice down, “We’re setting Chubbs and Seggy up when this game’s over, I can’t stand their pining.”

“Pot calling the kettle black,” EJ sing-songs from somewhere behind them, and Nate flips him off without looking back as Tyson readies his own broom.

“I hope we can talk after the game?” Sakic says quickly before anybody flies off, and Nate meets Tyson’s gaze quickly.

“Of course, Mr. Sakic” Tyson answers.

Nate adds, “Maybe we can talk over dinner?”

He watches both Tyson and Sakic closely, and he can’t tell what they’re thinking, but he’s pretty sure they’re not upset.

“Sure,” Sakic responds, and Nate lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Okay, let’s go,” he says, walking back towards the middle of their makeshift field, and a few seconds later Tyson joins him. 

As they get ready to kick off from the ground, Nate catches Tyson’s eye again, and in his face he sees his own feelings reflected back. This could really work for them. They can stay together and both play. The thought makes Nate so happy he barely remembers that last half hour of the match, but it doesn’t matter, because he gets to be with Tyson - now _and _later.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> I know you all wanted your own favorite background characters or ships to feature more prominently, and thought I sorted someone wrong, and I want to tell you I hear you, and I don't care. However, you're right, I should have included more women's players. And for the record I sorted a lot more people than I ended up mentioning... oops. And I know my passwords are stupid. I KNOW.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
